Rose English’s body of work is a particularly British blend of humour, philosophical investigation, feminist critique, elaborate costumes and popular stage tradition. Both highly influential as a Conceptual and Performance artist in the 1970s, English became known for site-specific performances and collaborations.

The work on display at Frieze Masters, Quadrille, consists of material from a performance in 1975, in which six women dressed as horses whilst performing a dressage dance at a horse show. The artist created sculptural costumes of aprons, leather harnesses, horsetails and real hoof high heels, which slow the dancers’ movements to create both farcical beauty and painful constraint. Exaggerated and luxuriant, in each performance the artist dresses herself and her collaborators in dynamic outfits that in many cases – alongside props and scenery – are treated as players themselves within the show.